Scuba diving jackets typically have pockets designed to hold ballast elements or “weights”, e.g., made of lead, for facilitating the diver's immersion. The weights are not merely placed in the pockets of the jacket, but rather are selectively combined into one or more pouches that are added to the pockets until the weight desired by the diver and, hence, buoyancy has been achieved. Each pouch, which generally contains one or more weights, is then inserted into the pocket. It is considered necessary that each pouch be attached to the scuba diving jacket by a releasable connection device that prevents the pouch from falling accidentally out of the pocket, while allowing for quick and easy release of the pouch when the diver wishes to accelerate his/her return to the surface or, alternatively, to delay descent.
The connection device usually comprises a quick engagement buckle, formed of a female part having a sheath integrally attached to the jacket and a male part with a latch member that includes one or more elastically deformable teeth designed to cooperate with a corresponding engagement member provided within the sheath. The connection device is attached, at the other end of the latch member, to the weight pouch.
Like most quick engagement buckles, this one is closed by simply pushing the latch member inside the sheath. Relative movement of the latch member and sheath causes elastic deformation of the teeth on the latch member as they abut corresponding engagement members in the sheath. More specifically, when the teeth on the latch member pass beyond the engagement member, they return to their undeformed condition and cooperate with the engagement member, thereby preventing the buckle from opening.
Consequently, the buckle may only be opened by intentional action that again deforms the teeth on the latch member and thus disengages them from the engagement member in the sheath.
In conventional scuba diving jackets, to open the buckle, users must use their fingers directly, i.e., to elastically deform the teeth on the latch member. Since users usually wear neoprene gloves of considerable thickness (3 to 5 mm) when scuba diving, they often find it difficult to place their fingers over the two side slots on the female part of the buckle to squeeze the teeth on the latch member.
In a “fast” type fastening buckle, which is not specifically intended for scuba diving equipment, a sliding cap is provided on the buckle for squeezing the teeth on the latch member. While useful this solution is designed for general applications, and has been found difficult to apply to a weight pouch because the diver still has to move the sliding cap with his/her gloved fingers.
With other known arrangements, the buckle may be opened using a handle. In particular, the teeth on the latch member are connected to the handle by a flexible connection, such as a tape, such that the buckle is opened by simply pulling the handle.
Although serviceable, this device has been found disadvantageous in that the handle for opening the buckle may be easily caught in an obstacle, resulting in accidental opening of the buckle and, in turn, loss of the pouch and of the weights it contains.
In an effort to overcome these drawbacks, an arrangement was then developed in which the latch member of the quick engagement buckle is associated with an element for locking the member. When the handle is operated so as to open the device, the locking element is released, such being a first, relatively brief step of opening the buckle. As a second step, continued tensile action on the handle causes the latch member to withdraw from the sheath, thus opening the buckle.
To this end, the locking member and the latch member are connected in parallel to the same handle by a pair of flexible elements, the element connected to the locking member being the shorter of the two. Accordingly, when the handle is intemtionally pulled by the user, the opening and withdrawing steps are very brief, with no interval between them, and any inadvertent tugging forces on the handle are not capable of maintaining the continuity of tensile action necessary to open the buckle.
This device is also considered problematic because, in order to close the device, the scuba diver must perform two operations instead of one, namely, first inserting the latch member and then the locking member. However, since the locking member can be inserted even before the latch member has reached the end of its stroke, there is still a margin of risk, albeit modest, that the buckle will open, and the pouch and weights it contains will be lost.